Reimagining finance talent with purposeful, tech-enabled careers

Singapore’s finance professionals are transforming the future of work with AI, mobility, and purpose converging.

Singapore’s finance profession is standing at a defining moment, with mobility, technology, and purpose reshaping how professionals define success as well as what employers must do to attract and retain them.

According to ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2025 study, 65% of finance professionals in Singapore expect to change roles within the next two years, a number that serves as a signal of ambition. Professionals seek careers where they can attain growth and relevance, and this is because they no longer view finance purely as a stable career path but as a platform for tech-enabled contributions to business and society.

Mobility, digital fluency gap, and intrapreneurs

Rising mobility amongst Gen Z and Gen Y professionals often sparks concern about retention. But as ACCA Singapore country manager Daniel Leung pointed out in an interview with Singapore Business Review, “Talent mobility doesn’t have to mean attrition.”

Smart employers reframe this as a way to build capability. Moreover, cross-border assignments, project rotations, and secondments across ASEAN broaden professional horizons and, more importantly, strengthen organisational cohesion. 

Employees are motivated to stay and evolve within the organisation when they see growth pathways. In this sense, movement can become a form of loyalty.

Meanwhile, the ACCA Global Talent Trends 2025 study also revealed that fewer than one in three finance professionals say their organisations offer formal AI training. This poses a gap because digital fluency is no longer optional amidst the finance landscape being increasingly data-driven.

To close this gap, Leung underscored the collaboration between employers and educators as the critical factor. Data literacy, digital assurance, and AI competence need to be woven into qualifications and continuing professional development (CPD). Initiatives such as modular, micro-credential learning pathways can make digital skills both attainable and relevant, embedding AI fluency into the everyday competence of finance professionals.

Furthermore, the report shows that the next generation of accountants is already innovating, with entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial mindsets rising across the finance workforce.  

“The next generation of accountants is entrepreneurial by instinct,” Leung said. “Organisations can channel that energy into intrapreneurship by encouraging innovation within finance teams. That means rewarding creative problem-solving, supporting experimentation, and giving professionals the space to contribute ideas that improve systems, not just processes.”

Retention levers

The talent market has been defined by choice; hence, culture has become its ultimate differentiator. Whilst flexible work policies matter, they are no longer enough. 

What has emerged as a crucial factor is leaders who communicate purpose clearly and back it with tangible investment in employee well-being. In Singapore’s knowledge-driven economy, these human factors are what sustain high performance.

Moreover, Singapore has long been a testbed for innovative learning models, so initiatives like SkillsFuture have embedded lifelong learning into its national fabric. The next step, Leung stated, is scale and global portability to ensure that skills gained locally hold value regionally and globally.

To attain this, the “portable, stackable learning” comes in. By aligning national initiatives with globally recognised frameworks, Singapore can strengthen its position as a regional talent hub. Through modular pathways that integrate sustainability, digital, and data analytics into qualifications professionals can build globally relevant skill sets. But above all this, Leung underscored that ethics remains the anchor in technology-enabled finance. 

“Ethics is the compass for innovation. As technology automates more decisions, professional accountants must remain the human conscience of finance,” he stated, noting that embedding ethics and professional scepticism throughout education ensures that automation enhances trust.

Collaboration, not competition

Looking ahead, Singapore’s financial ecosystem can strengthen its ASEAN leadership not through competition but collaboration. Deeper partnerships in training, sustainability reporting, and digital capacity-building are key to building a globally relevant finance profession. 

“The future of finance in ASEAN will depend on how effectively we collaborate, not compete, to develop people who can operate across borders with both confidence and conscience,” Leung said.